Imagined Equality
by AnotherBook
Summary: (Posted by Erin) Anakin never talks about his visions. Obi-Wan did, once. But never again. Rated T for nasty nightmares.


Here, after midnight, they were equals.

In the daytime, everyone said they were equals, but it wasn't true. In the daytime, he could pretend. But Obi-Wan was not a pretender. Obi-Wan was for real. And yet it wasn't… wasn't quite that way. It was complicated.

Obi-Wan was quite clearly the master. If not by rank, any more, then by simple personality. He had the willpower that Anakin lacked—the willpower that Anakin did not _need_. He had a wisdom beyond his years, a knowledge of the human psyche that Anakin would never be able to grasp. Even without the Force, he could predict people's moves with uncanny accuracy. Perhaps he was simply so attuned to the Force, at one with it, that even when under a Force-blocker he still continued to access it subconsciously, even when his conscious mind could not.

The point was, Obi-Wan could be everything Anakin could not. He really was the Jedi people said he was. Anakin wasn't.

Yet, Obi-Wan existed in layers, Anakin knew. There was the layer that showed in public, the layer for casual privacy, the one that he reserved only for Anakin when casual humor simply was not enough. But after midnight, they were truly equals.

After midnight, everyone's masks came off and showed who they really were.

Anakin was probably the only person—besides the late Qui-Gon Jinn, of course—in the galaxy to have ever seen the merest _cracks_ in Obi-Wan's composure. After midnight, the masks came off, and he knew that Obi-Wan felt just as vulnerable as he did, suffered constantly from self-doubt, even doubted his place in the Order at times. It gave Anakin an unpleasant sense of malicious satisfaction, at times, but he could never take advantage of his knowledge of Obi-Wan. He couldn't even bear the thought of how Obi-Wan would simply look at him, afterward, and say nothing.

The floor creaked slightly as Anakin's feet hit the floor. He hadn't heard Obi-Wan move down the hallway. Obi-Wan had always been able to move with more grace and stealth than he had. Still, somehow, Anakin knew Obi-Wan was not in his room. He followed Obi-Wan down the short hall and out into the living room.

He could see only a dark silhouette as Obi-Wan stared out the window, perfectly still. It was eerie, but it was nothing Anakin had not experienced before. He ignored the sense of foreboding and walked forward to stand beside Obi-Wan.

Coruscant at night was not like Tatooine had been at night. Tatooine nights had been pleasantly cool for the first hour or so after sunset. Coruscant nights were hot, and occasionally windy. Due to the city's great number of artificial lights, the night side of the city planet always remained in perpetual twilight, rather than a true night, with stars and moon. Obi-Wan stood, framed by the echoes of the light pollution. Anakin was momentarily frightened by the apparent symbolism, but he calmed a second later, thinking that, perhaps, this was how true light looked, set against its pallid and sickly cousin. Wild. Untamed. Absolute.

"I saw you die," Obi-Wan said, suddenly, without any prelude. Anakin was unsure what to make of that. Obi-Wan had had nightmares about Qui-Gon in the past, and had been known to occasionally walk—and talk—in his sleep, though that was rare, generally only happening when… well, Anakin wasn't sure why it happened, but there was some pattern there, he just wasn't certain what it was.

Was Obi-Wan not actually awake, and thinking he was talking to Qui-Gon and not to Anakin?

"I saw you die," Obi-Wan repeated. "But it was worse than that, at first… You _turned_. And you destroyed everything. Everything. They were all dead, even the Younglings…" Anakin took a step back.

"What?" he croaked. Obi-Wan finally turned to look at him.

"That _won't_ happen," he said softly, yet his voice was hard with steely determination. Anakin moved back, frightened. Obi-Wan, however, merely put his hand on Anakin's shoulder.

"Let's go back to bed, Anakin."

The next morning, it was as if nothing had happened. Still, Anakin could not bring himself to forget the ominous occurrence.

Anakin had dreams—horrible, frightening ones—where Obi-Wan killed him, after that. He never told Obi-Wan about them.

Dreams did not pass in time. Only caring did.


End file.
